The invention relates to electrical connector assemblies, and more particularly to electrical connection assemblies having extendable electrical junction assemblies.
The modern office environment requires a number of electrical outlets to provide power to a variety of electrical devices such as typewriters, computers, telephone sets, dictation equipment and the like. Wall structures for office spaces are often formed from a plurality of prefabricated vertical wall panels which can be readily assembled or disassembled to rearrange space. As panels and office equipment are moved from one position to another, the need for electrical outlets in the different panels changes as well. Typically, such panels have a raceway near the bottom of the panel to accommodate electrical wiring, and the panels may comprise electrical connectors at their edges to allow electrical power to be propagated to various locations through electrical conductors in the raceways of adjacent panels. Electrical outlet boxes may be incorporated into the raceways as well. The panels generally vary in width to allow for flexible rearrangement of work space. It is usually too expensive to provide outlet boxes in every panel, and furthermore outlet boxes and junction assemblies must be attached at certain positions within the raceway where support brackets have been provided. Further, for the sake of safety, electrical conductors in the raceway are contained in rigid or flexible conduits or cables of a length corresponding to the distance between the connector blocks.
A primary problem exists with the prior art assemblies particularly when constructing or rearranging an office area in that cables of exact length are not readily available for every possible configuration and are difficult to make to exact length "in the field" in the installation process. Cables that are longer than the required length generally cannot be used because of the space restrictions within the raceway. There is thus a need for a lengthwise adjustable interconnecting arrangement which can be adjusted over a range of length to accommodate the needs of a variety of office and wall panel configurations.
An arrangement for an electrical junction assembly which provides for expansion and retraction of an electrical outlet or connector is disclosed in my prior patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,403. The arrangement disclosed therein employs a flexible conduit which is extendable and retractable in the lengthwise direction. A housing is provided in which conductive wire is coiled or looped to provide additional wire length when the conduit is expanded and to provide an area for storing electrical wire when the conduit is retracted. One disadvantage of the prior art arrangement is that it requires a particular flexible conduit. Furthermore, such flexible conduit is limited in the expansion distance that can be obtained, which limited distance is directly related to the overall length of the conduit.
A general problem in construction of electrical junction assemblies for use in adjustable wall assemblies is the rather severe space constraints as well as the need to safely and neatly contain the wiring within raceways.